Chapter 298: Man Proposes, System Disposes

I already can't wait to show you the next chapter! See you on Monday for chapter 299!
Enjoy!

PS: Priam Character Sheet (you can thanks the Discord guys! Come say hello.)
PSS: This chapter should clear up any misunderstandings about the previous reward. I've also reworked the wording—thanks to everyone who helped!

*

Valaryth Quest: Invasion I - Pseudo Alien Tribulation. 

Retrieve the heart of the Tier 2 High Tribulation ‘Deluge’ for the System.
Reward: Rewards of a Triple Tribulation, plus validation of the following thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 1 attribute > 1,200
Difficulty: Mythic

“Best damn birthday gift ever!” Priam exclaimed. This reward would allow him to push his attributes even further before his next quintuple Tribulation. He would face them with the stats of a candidate who had completed seven Tribulations, not just four.

His shadow flinched. “It’s your birthday?!”

“Just like every year.”

“But I don’t have a gift!”

“No big deal.”

“Rose told me you give gifts to the people you love. I love you and want to give you a gift.”

The declaration was so sincere it took Priam off guard.

“Well… thanks.”

“I’ll tell you when I think of something. But why didn’t you tell us? Alain didn’t say anything, either…”

Priam laughed. “He always forgets. But he’s a great dad the rest of the year, so I let it slide. As for me…” He shrugged. “I didn’t see the point.”

“You mean, apart from throwing a party?”

“With all the dangers that threaten us, it’s a waste of time.”

Jasmine huffed, unimpressed. “That sounds like the kind of hyper-pragmatic logic I’d expect from Arnold, not you. If life can stop at any second, we should live it to the fullest!”

Priam respected her enthusiasm but followed a different creed.

“I get what you’re saying, but I’d hate to die because my enemies were training while I was out partying.”

Despite [He Who Eludes Death], Priam knew he wasn’t immortal. Any High Tier could snuff him out like a candle. If death was a possibility, his pride prevented him from accepting it without a fight.

“Not dying is surviving; a commendable goal, but very different from living.”

Priam shrugged. “I don’t have time for semantics.”

“I don’t know what that means, but I’m not letting you brush this off,” Jasmine pressed. “Do you even like the life you’re living?”

Her concern was genuine, and Priam didn’t want to shut her down. He gave the question real thought, scanning his surroundings. The storm howled in his ears, its lethal drops falling harmlessly on his skin. Here he was, facing nature’s fury, standing on equal footing.

A faint smile tugged at his lips. “Yeah, I love it.”

“I'm sure it sounds metal in your head,” Jasmine shot back. “But don’t burn yourself out. When the warning signs show up, it’s already too late.”

The advice reminded Priam of his dark adolescence, and he took it seriously.

“I know. I’ll take a break once my Tribulations are done,” he promised.

“Mhm… I’ll hold you to that.”

A distant thunderclap sounded, and Priam focused on the trial ahead. Stretching out his body, he set off again. Two thin kinetic platforms hovered under his feet, letting him step through the sheet of rain into the third zone. The deadly downpour lashed at him uselessly, while the wind’s force multiplied, a crushing weight bearing down as if to drag him into the whirlpool below. But Priam bore the storm’s wrath with brute endurance, striding almost serenely toward the center of the Deluge.

The tempest raged around him. Heavy raindrops hitting the water’s surface created splashes, sending up clouds of mist at shoulder height. The sheer volume clouded his vision, but thanks to his Mist Concept, Priam could partially pierce the chaos.

At his tenth step, the wind shifted. Instead of pushing him down like a giant’s hand, it suddenly pulled him upward. Instantly, Priam used his kinetic mastery to anchor himself to the churning sea surface. Without it, he would have been swept up, carried by the gusts to hundreds of meters high, toward a grim fate.

The use of his kinetic skill displeased the Tribulation. The air charged with electrons, and Priam’s instincts screamed.

In a flash, he rode the mist, reappearing about twenty meters away. The thick, alien ambient aether limited his range.

Behind him, a lightning column struck the ocean. Priam only caught it out of the corner of his eye, but it was enough for the flash’s image to be imprinted on his retina. A vision of death. Then came the sound. The thunder shook his eardrums like the death knell, confronting Priam with his own mortality.

He was at the heart of the unholy fusion of a hurricane and a maelstrom of catastrophic proportions. Beneath him, a vortex capable of sucking an aircraft carrier into the depths, and above, a storm cloud ready to unleash bolts the size of skyscrapers.

Yet, Priam wore an uncontrollable smile.

Without his constitution, resistances, accelerated regeneration from [Three-headed Hydra], kinetic mastery, and Mist Concept, he would have been dead long ago. The only reason the calamity hadn't devoured him yet was that this Tribulation targeted his strengths rather than his weaknesses. Any other Tier 0 would have been vaporized by now, and if he didn't respect this trial, Priam would join the wrong side of the statistics.

“You okay?” Jasmine’s worried voice broke through.

“Yeah.”

Turning back toward his goal, a focused Priam pressed forward.

The cyclone’s pattern soon became apparent. Every ten steps, the wind direction changed to destabilize the Tribulation candidate. Instead of brute-forcing through, Priam summoned his spectral scales. [Smooth Scales] provided friction resistance, forcing the air to slide over him. It wasn’t perfect, but it bought him enough time to hop through the mist a few times, reaching parts of the zone where the wind pinned him toward the ocean. Here, he was relatively safe.

After several minutes resting to restore his willpower—the resource that fueled his Concepts—Priam set off again. He moved from one safe zone to another, and after an hour, he reached a fourth wall of swirling blue and white. In this new zone, water and ice mingled to crush those not discouraged by the last trial. Deadly rain was now joined by hail, a storm capable of eroding a cliff in minutes.

Priam was harder than rock and pushed onward.

Third zone of the Deluge cleared. Valaryth’s Ocean’s reward: [Shear Resistance] x15…
Seal detected. Progression delayed. 

Before he could survey his new surroundings, a hailstone the size of his head smashed into his shoulder with cannonball force. He was catapulted backward, flung from the fourth zone to the third, where a gust of wind hurled him skyward before he could react. The jaws of the Deluge had seized him and wouldn’t let go.

White of the lightning, gray of the rain, black of the storm, then white again. Colors spun before Priam’s eyes like a kaleidoscope, further blurring his bearings. Swallowed by the opaque cloud and tossed in every direction by the furious winds, he lost all sense of up and down. His speed prevented him from sensing his surroundings through his Mist Concept. As nausea climbed, he realized he couldn’t even rely on his kinetic mastery to get out of this one. Lost in the storm’s heart, he doubted he could dodge lightning without seeing it. All he could do was wait.

So, like a garment in a hellish washing machine, Priam waited. 

*

Titus stepped into the second zone, his face set in a grim expression. His Storm Dominion kept the deadly rain from shredding him.

“You feel anything?” Gooru asked from his right. The old warrior faced the raindrops stoically as they crashed against his body. Between Valaryth’s rewards and Micro, his tempered physique was able to withstand the downpour head-on. On the other hand, his harmony with Storm was so low that he couldn’t hear it.

“The storm’s whispers are strange,” Titus muttered, frowning.

“What do you mean?”

“It hasn’t tasted blood today.”

“That’s impossible!”

“Unless the intruder survived the lightning.”

Gooru looked up at the sky. “I tempered my body with the lightning in the second zone—I know how destructive it is. There aren’t more than a hundred Rhems who’d survive a direct hit. He must’ve dodged it.”

“How may someone avoid lightning?”

“I have no idea!” the grumpy warrior shouted. If the gates of Atlantis weren’t closed and the Deluge wasn’t sacred to their race, he would suspect an Elder decided to stretch their legs. “You have his location?”

Titus pointed toward the third zone. “Over there.”

“...Shit.”

Even for two veterans teetering on Tier 1, the third zone was dangerous.

*

Curled up, tossed around by winds miles high, Priam waited patiently for the chaos to tire of shaking him. At last, his Mist perception detected a cloudless space, followed by his Domain sensing the waves. The next instant, he collided with the ocean's surface at twice the speed of a bullet train. He felt his bones crack and his lungs fill with water.

Lvl Up: [Smooth Scales] lvl 36
AGI +3

A wave covered him as he barely regained his senses. Feeling a powerful suction dragging him into the depths, Priam realized an underwater vortex had him in its grip.

Fuck!

If he let himself get dragged kilometers beneath the surface by that overpowering current, he was as good as dead. Analyzing his options in a split second, Priam chose to fight back.

Lvl Up: [Adaptive Golden Meridians] lvl 20
META (Focus) +3
META (Endurance) +6

His meridians trembled as he unleashed all his kinetic reserves in one burst. An omnidirectional shockwave erupted, blasting the water away like a mini-nuke.

For a brief moment, calm reigned in a twenty-meter radius around Priam. He stood at the center of an ephemeral crater of water.

“Note to self: never get caught by the winds again,” he muttered, spitting out the water he had swallowed.

High above, the storm roared back. The Deluge would not tolerate the use of active skills as a means of defense.

Raising his hand, Priam focused all his aether proficiency to hastily trace a massive rune, boundary, inspired by his perfect fight with Clock. A heartbeat later, lightning struck his shield. The aether-imbued barrier held off the assault for a heartbeat. Then the lightning shattered the bubble and drenched Priam.

He screamed as the energy surge boiled his blood. The vital fluid escaped his body, partly turning into vapor. Nearly driven mad by the agony, Priam had enough presence of mind to realize the lightning wasn't dissipating. The Deluge was channeling a continuous strike to reduce him to ashes. Worse still, the attack was burning his aether, preventing him from using his skills. He could barely keep himself airborne.

Fuck! Confronted with death, Priam quickly assessed his quest and made a radical decision.

Disabling attribute seal: Constitution.

His own Potential stopped blocking his progress, and all his recent experiences caught up to him.

Lvl Up: [Shear Resistance] lvl 3,..., 34
CONST +96
Lvl Up: [Thick Blood] lvl 14
VIT +3

[Tribulation]: An attribute above 1 200 was detected in Tier 0.
A Tribulation is coming.

[To Play with Fire - Bronze] becomes [To Play with Pyro - Silver] !

[To Play with Pyro - Silver] - Six Tribulations await you for the third time, and yet, you haven’t passed any of them yet. Either you like playing with the rules, or you are completely stupid. Probably a bit of both.
Take your upgrade and go die somewhere else.
META (Chance) +20%

In mere moments, ambient aether poured into Priam’s body and soul, energizing his skills’ runes. His cells mutated at a frenzied pace, transforming to support his evolution. His constitution surged, allowing the warrior to survive a second longer under the relentless electric flood.

As a cascade of notifications appeared, [Homo Elysian Obsession] and [Life is Hard; I’m Harder] rallied to help Priam's body adapt. The essence of the Juggernaut squared off with the Deluge. Would he develop [Lightning Resistance] before the lightning consumed him? Bets were open.

Millions of spontaneous mutations erupted within his body, some effective, others less so. The suboptimal changes vanished as the Tribulation’s punishment smote them. Amidst the ruin that was Priam’s body, beneficial alterations persisted. As if reenacting the theory of evolution in fast-forward, his surviving cells multiplied, communicating with one another, mutating to survive.

Priam's physique fought to survive as his lifespan burned to sustain his boosted vitality. While his vital fluid evaporated, his bone marrow produced fresh blood to keep him alive a few seconds longer. Backed by the force of a High Tribulation, the electric javelin faced off with the Juggernaut’s body. The ultimate strike against the supreme cockroach.

As scars were spreading across the battlefield that was his body, Priam screamed at the top of his lungs. His bodily fluids were boiling, and his overheated fat was frying him from the inside out. His nociceptors—pain sensors—blazed as high-voltage currents coursed through them. Though his nerves had recently become aether-sensitive thanks to his agility’s evolution, they weren’t yet immune to electric shocks.

Many words to express a single reality: Priam was suffering torment. Yet, as a rune materialized on the second layer of his soul, he wouldn’t have traded places with anyone.

Defying the world’s order and the very forces of nature, the Juggernaut was right where he belonged. His blind eyes turned to the sky, he laughed as he felt his soul gain a new rune.

You have gained the skill: [Lightning Resistance - Rare].
[Lightning Resistance] - Electricity is part of a broader phenomenon: electromagnetism. If you have never heard of Maxwell’s equations... consider yourself lucky. Ignorance is often bliss.
If you are seeing this description, you have probably gotten a bit too close to a transformer or a storm. This skill will help you survive the next time you try tightrope walking on a high-voltage wire. Your body passively absorbs some of the excess electricity, converting it into aether.
Your girlfriend calls you Lightning as you are too fast. My wife calls me Lightning because my rod is shocking. We are not the same.
CONST +2
VIT +1

“About damn time,” Priam muttered as his cells began converting electric energy into aether. After going through hell, his new resistance gave him back control of his skills. 

Ignoring the pain, Priam kinetically manipulated the water beneath him to form a protective dome. Saltwater, being conductive, absorbed the lightning, which finally dissipated after a few seconds. The Deluge seemed unwilling to exhaust itself by vaporizing the entire ocean.

“You’re smokin’ hot. Literally,” Jasmine teased.

Priam quickly examined himself with Micro. He looked more like a slab of overcooked meat than a human. His regeneration tugged him back from death’s grip within seconds, for the modest cost of a few months of his lifespan.

Opening his eyes, Priam saw he was on a kinetic platform. He could hear the waves crashing a few meters below him. His add-on had saved his ass by preventing him from falling into the vortex.

“Fuck the Deluge and damn the System.”

“Something wrong?” Jasmine asked.

“Another skill description cracking jokes about my sexual performances. I swear I live rent-free in the mind of whoever writes this shit.”

“You don’t think it has to do with you always walking around naked?”

Priam glanced down and realized his mist-woven clothes hadn’t survived the wrath of the lightning. His assets swung freely in the breeze. Jasmine might have a point. But if I put clothes on, then the System wins.

Refusing to lose any battle, Priam decided to stay nude until his quest was over.

As he stood up, Priam noticed he barely felt the raindrops running down his face. Each held the kinetic energy of a bullet, yet his resistance and constitution were now so high they were harmless.

“One step closer on the Path of the ultimate Tank. If the Deluge’s got nothing left, I think I’ve got this quest in the bag,” he grinned.

“Don’t jinx it. Plus, I thought most of your resistances’ progress was limited by your Tribulations?” Jasmine asked.

“I unlocked the seal on my constitution,” Priam admitted.

“WHAT?!”

“I—”

“You already weren’t sure you’d survive a quintuple Tribulation! A sextuple would kill you!”

Priam winced. “I’m not planning to face a sextuple if I can avoid it.”

“Explain. Now.”

“Read the quest description.”

“... Rewards of a Triple Tribulation, plus validation of the following three thresholds: 12 attributes > 300 / 6 attributes > 600 / 1 attribute > 1 200.” Jasmine’s thresholds were different from Priam’s, as their builds weren’t the same. “I don’t see where it says you can cancel your sixth Tribulation.”

“Yet that’s what I’m reading: the thresholds are targeted, and I think that’s a clue. Now that I’ve surpassed one of these thresholds, what happens if I complete the quest?” Priam asked.

“The threshold you just passed will be ‘validated.’” Jasmine paused. “You think it could retroactively affect the new Tribulation?”

“If the threshold that triggered the Tribulation no longer counts, then neither does the Tribulation.”

It was an elegant solution on the System’s part to give Priam the means to claim the heart of the Deluge.

“Are you sure?”

Priam mentally cleared his throat. “Nope. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have waited to unseal my constitution. Still, I’m certain the System would have phrased things differently if it didn’t want me to consider this.”

“Unless it’s setting you up.”

Priam shrugged, turning back toward the fourth zone. “Man proposes, System disposes.”

*

Status:

PHYSICAL:
Strength 893 SEALED
Constitution 1 326 (+127)
Agility 1 173 (+4)
Vitality 1 143 (+7)
Perception 858

MENTAL:
Vivacity (D) 599 SEALED
Dexterity 752
Memory 891 SEALED
Willpower 1 004
Charisma 648

META:
Meta-affinity 999
Meta-focus 554 (+3)
Meta-endurance 896 (+9)
Meta-perception 502
Meta-chance 589 (+33)
Meta-authority 315 

Potential: 17 913 (+73)
Tier 0

Sun points: 143 444

[He Who Eludes Death] charge: PRIMED

Concepts:

• Breath (T0): 100% / Harmony

• Fire (T0): 100% / Unity

• Pyro (T1): 100% / Half-step Unity

• Mist (T1): 100% / Symphony

Bloodlines:

• Phoenix: 2%

• Dragon: 1%

Rewards standing: 

• Fusion Token - Skill (Epic) 

• Evolution Token - Skill (Legendary)

• Affinity Token - Tier 1 (30%)

• Alien Concept fragment (7th Terror)

• Talent Token - Upgrade (Seraph)

• Revelation Token - Ideal Prerequisites (Epic)

• Colosseum VIP Token

• Reborn Token - Reset biological lifespan (Legendary) 

[Tribulation]: Six Tribulations pending.
Future Tribulations delayed until:
Time: 133 days 14 hours 42 minutes 55 seconds.

Next thresholds: 12 attributes > 600 / 6 attributes > 900 / 3 attributes > 1 200 / 1 attribute > 1 500